NASA’s Intense Satellite Views of Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy is expected to bring life-threatening flooding to the US mid-Atlantic coast and hurricane-force winds from Virginia to Massachusetts. Landfall is predicted along the southern New Jersey coast on Monday night, though most of the eastern United States will feel its fury. This includes the densely populated New York City where subways, buses and trains were shut down on Monday and school was closed for the city’s 1.1 million students.

CNN is reporting that Hurricane Sandy could affect as many as 60 million people. “This is the most catastrophic event that we have faced and been able to plan for in any of our lifetimes,” Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy said. Sandy is likely to collide with two other weather systems to spawn a “superstorm” that could reak havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes, generating flash floods, snowstorms and massive power outages.

NASA has been putting out some intense images of Hurricane Sandy from their satellites including a a beautiful but eerie view of it in the dark of night using a night-viewing sensor on their Suomi NPP satellite. Taken just one day ago, on October 28, 2012 at 2:42 am EDT, the photo shows clouds lit by the nearly full Moon and, under them, city lights sparkling in Florida and Georgia.

Now here are some other extraordinary shots, taken by NASA’s satellites, as they track the storm from high above.

Hurricane Sandy over Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico (city lights) and the Virgin Islands on October 25, 2012, early morning.

Hurricane Sandy’s large extent of the storm over the Bahamas on October 25, 2012 at 11:30 a.m EDT. Sandy had grown since the morning hours on October 25 by about 120 miles in diameter according to satellite data.

Sandy’s huge cloud extend up to 2,000 miles while centered over the Bahamas on October 26, 2012 at 10:15 a.m. EDT. This pictures shows it ominously approaching the U.S. east coast .

The center of the storm hovered over the Atlantic Ocean and off the Florida coast around midday on October 26, 2012.

Off the Carolinas or southeastern United States on October 28, 2012 at noon EDT.

Hurricane Sandy off the southeastern United States at noon EDT on October 28, 2012.

Hurricane Sandy battering the U.S. East Coast on Monday, October 29, 2012 at 9:10 a.m.

Ever wonder what it would be like to swim with jellyfish? Travel and adventure photographer Kien Lam fulfilled this fantasy by flying across the globe to Jellyfish Lake in Micronesia. Anyone who has been stung by a jellyfish can attest—it’s not a pleasant experience. But Jellyfish Lake in Palau is filled with millions of jellyfish that have evolved in a way that makes it safe for humans to swim in the same waters.

If you’re unfamiliar with Larung Gar, it may be because the small, remote town located in a far-flung corner of China has largely stayed out of the tourism spotlight. It is, however, a cultural and historical Tibetan treasure that has been undergoing tremendous changes in the past few decades, particularly in the midst of global controversy between Tibet and China.